Boulder students get extra literacy instruction in summer program

About 120 students at three Boulder public housing sites are getting an extra dose of literacy instruction through the Summer Shuffle program.

The program, which started as a pilot at one site last summer, is a partnership between the Boulder Housing Partners Foundation and Impact on Education, which split the $35,000 cost. The students, who attend Boulder elementary and middle schools, attend short sessions held in their site's community room.

"We know that a combination of housing-based and school-based services work best," said Karin Stayton, program manager at Boulder Housing Partners, the city's housing authority. "We're committed to supporting children and youth in our housing sites and helping to close the opportunity gap."

The program, held for two-and-a-half weeks in June and another two weeks starting last week, was designed to "bookend" the district's free summer school program so students who qualified could attend both. Students and their families also were invited to once-a-week field trips in July, including trips to the library and planetarium.

The goal is simple: prevent summer learning loss, so the students start school in August at the same reading level as when they left in May. If they move ahead, even better.

Research shows that, by the time students are in ninth grade, as much as two-thirds of the achievement gap for low-income students can be attributed to summer learning loss — a loss that also requires students to spend the first month or two of the school year relearning material.

Advertisement

"We want to give children who live in an economically challenged home the opportunity to enrich their learning," said Fran Ryan, CEO of Impact on Education. "Time on task matters."

Ryan said 95 percent of the 40 students who participated in last year's pilot program returned to school at the same reading level as the end of the school year.

She attributes much of the program's success to it being taught by Boulder Valley teachers.

"It's a big difference, having a licensed teacher who knows how to instruct in reading," she said.

Magdalena Casillas, who's the site coordinator at Red Oak housing and a fifth-grade teacher at University Hill Elementary, said they're working with the younger students on developing oral language, learning the sounds that go with the letters and writing their names. On iPads, students work on recognizing and writing letters. Older students are using the iPads to write and illustrate stories.

She said she's also worked with parents, making sure they have library cards and helping them with ideas for keeping their kids reading. Students also can check out books and iPads to take home.

Students said their favorite part of the program is using the iPads.

"We get to use tablets and read and write," said Michelle Acosta, who will be a fourth-grader at University Hill Elementary. "It's awesome."

Lightning has 5A state title aspirations once againIt was the only home plate the Legacy varsity softball field had ever known, and there it was last Saturday, in its tattered state, dug out of the playing surface and relegated to a lonely, unused existence. Full Story

The Boulder alt-country band gives its EPs names such as Death and Resurrection, and its songs bear the mark of hard truths and sin. But the punk energy behind the playing, and the sense that it's all in good fun, make it OK to dance to a song like "Death." Full Story